Posts by Dr Patrick J R Harkin

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If the jurors can treat it like a game show, why not the accused?

Accused in the dock - You're currently looking at a minimum sentence of five years. You've already got rid of 10 years and 25 years, but with three pieces of evidence yet to open, the 15 years sentence is still in play. <phone rings> The jailer has told me to offer you..... nine years. Deal - or No Deal?

"like frogs on a red rag"

Obviously, this clears the decks for...

Pro-celebrity Air Hockey! No? Ho about Pro-Celebrity One man And His Dog? Jethro , from Settle with his dog Blackie vs Paris Hilton and some dishrag thing in a purse? OK, how about Pro-Celebrity Boxing? Obviously, we can't match the current prize funds in pro boxing, but perhaps we can tempt a few retired boxers back into the ring. It'd be a smash! Who wouldn't pay to watch Mike Tyson vs Tara Palmer-Tompkinson?

My first thought was...

90% is pretty damn impressive

when you consider how many different cameras there are. I wonder if it relies on having an unprocessed image, or if one scaled/edited would still work?

As most webbed/mailed images have been at least partly processed, having an untouched image more or less requires having the camera or computer of the photographer - in which case it's not that usefull to know that camera model!

Well, I like my TomTom

I've got to the age where I can wear my distance glasses and read signs or wear my reading glasses to read maps - but not both. And if I'm driving alone, stopping every few miles to check the might is a pain. I used to use the AA map service - but it's nowhere near as good as my TomTom. Miss a turn if you're using the AA directions - and now you're on a road for which you have no directions at all.

The resolution of paper maps (which I do still have in the car) is fine to get me from Leeds to Bristol - but not to a particular street in Bristol.

No satnav will ever beat a local who knows that 8:30 on Thursday is when the farmers market closes three streets- so I don't use it within a few miles of home. But if you're trying to find an address in a new city, it's invaluable.

Surely this is satellite tracking, not satellite naviagation?

@ratfox

"I predict a short lifespan for the first person using it. Or rather, I hope they test it on animals before. Yes, that's me putting the health of human beings before that of animals."

Me too - but mainly because they test this sort of kit on people who will die in a few days without intervention.

And am I a bad person for having as my first thought not "What a breakthough for the sick" but "What a cool spy/assassin gadget!" Get involved in a shoot out (whilst wearing a kevlar vest & a few blood bags), fall to the floor, bad guys check carotid pulse, they say "He's dead" and walk off and you rise from the dead behind them!

They sent a load of pictures as well.

"I bet the poor guy who ran the ISP doesn't see a single cent"

Much as I'm sure he'd love the money, I reckon he'll settle for the 10-15 million spam reduction he's already got, and hopes it will lead to more when the word gets round that spamming his domain runs expensive.

Yes, it's natural selection in action but...

Think of the bigger picture here, people. Yes, the idiot ends up in the morgue, but other people are affected too. I don't want to kill someone with my car. Whilst it may be good for the gene pool, that person on the slab marks the end of my no claims discount.

Good thing this didn't happen in sheep-bothering country...

@Joe K

"Its a reader, if you want to type get a bloody UMPC."

I don't want to type volumes, but a search facility is very useful. That's the main reason I'm still using my smartphone. Kindle - great search (searches entire LIBRARY, not just one book) but proprietary, Sony more open - but no seasrch at all. Both comment apply to existing models, may well change on version x+1

SmartPhone

I use my SmartPhone to do this already - either purchased eBooks or Word documents converted using the free Microsoft Reader plugin. It's just about acceptable - but the screen size is a definite limitation for any lengthy read.

I'm not surprised people are confused.

I can listen to the radio in my home before I come to work without having to pay PRS. I can listen to radio here, if I use headphones, again without having to pay PRS. If I set up my radio so the whole office can hear, I have no idea what the consequences are - apart from the ensuing rain of Tippex. If my boss set up the radio to entertain the troops, she'd have to pay.

It's rather odd that a single radio we all can hear would require payment to PRS, but giving us all radios (fixed to the same station) which we could listen to individually would not.

Given the radio station has paid to broadcast to us, I think radios in public should be free. Running your own in-business entertainment (like Virgin & HMV do/did) obviously requires payment. And who here is old enough to remember Word Perfect technical support hold DJ? A friend of mine one asked to be put back to the end of the queue so he could listen to the end of a track!

It's an android

@Stop right there

"Lastly, evolution is a theory, has never been proven, will never be proven, because it is a stupid non-sense theory that was made up, so that who doesn't believe in God can have something to believe in."

Yes, evolution is a theory, as are quantum electrodynamics, gravity and that 2 plus 2 equals 4.

But more and more bits of the theory are being proved in the lab. We now have experimental proof that mutation can produce new species and that selection can cause that new species to replace the old one. The work was done in bacteria, as waiting 30,000 generations can be a bit tedious otherwise, but it shows all the elements of Darwinian evolution work.

Of course, it doesn't prove that WE evolved from something else - creationists can still claim that some divine being assembled us from a flatpack kit if they wish - but they can no longer claim that "evolution doesn't work".